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Personally, how would you answer the question, “If you could ask God for anything right now, what would you ask for?” Maybe it would be financial—to be debt-free or have a higher income? Or maybe physical—a new house or perfect health? Or even relational—a better marriage?
Now, here’s the same question with a different context: “If you could ask God for anything for your church with a guaranteed answer, what would you ask for?” No debt and a bigger budget? New facilities? Church unity? Your congregation to be whole and healthy?
It’s an intriguing question! And if we want to know the answer, all we need to do is look at our prayer journal or our church prayer lists. I will confess that I have spent countless hours asking God for all of those things and more. It’s not that we shouldn’t pray for those things or desire God to bless us in those ways. But what I am coming to discover is that the pursuit of those things is not the primary purpose of the church.
So what should we be asking for?
I truly believe that what we need is not more of God’s blessing on our church, but rather, his manifest presence in our church. What would it look like for us to become a people who desires God’s presence more than anything he could give us? What if our prayer life, both individually and corporately, was consumed by a longing for more of his presence? More than ever, I am convinced that a church with fewer things but more of God’s presence is a church that will still receive “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph 3:20).
We see an example of this in Exodus 33. There, the people of God sinned against him. As a consequence, God was going to destroy them, but Moses pleaded with God in prayer and God relented. Yet, God was going to remove his presence! In Exodus 33:1-3, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring, I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the [other nations] … Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you ….”
In our Western Christianity version of this, it seems like a sweet gig! We’d have the best facilities, no debt, a bigger budget, great staff, church unity, and our own personal angel just in case! Where do we sign? Would we even realize God wasn’t with us? If we’re honest, this is how many churches operate functionally. I can confess that New Beginnings Baptist Church, where I pastor, has functionally taken this posture. We would never say it out loud, but I see it in our finance meetings, our strategic planning, our staff meetings, and our prayer lists. But I have learned something from Moses in Exodus 33.
Moses declined God’s offer to have the Promised Land without his presence. Exodus 33:13-16 says, “‘…if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.’ And he said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ And he said to him, ‘If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?’” In essence, Moses is saying, “No way! More than we want your blessings, we want you!” Moses would rather be in the wilderness with God than experience the Promised Land without him!
We are the people of God set apart for the mission of God to display the glory God. This requires the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our churches. We need him more than anything else! Without him with us, there is no distinction between us and the world.
Why? Because he understood their identity! In verse 13, the word “people” is loaded with meaning. In chapter 19, it’s a reference to their missional identity. Exodus 19:5-6 says, “‘… if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” This is their missional identity! God set them apart, made them his treasured possession, to be a kingdom of priests who represent him before the rest of the world! As they walked in obedience to his commands, his presence dwelt among them and blessed them as a testimony to the other nations that they belonged to the true and living God! Their identity was not defined by what possessions they had but by whose possession they were! Their distinction was not in the land of promise but in the presence of the God of promise! The distinction was his presence.
As the church of Jesus Christ, we have the same missional identity. In 1 Peter 2:9, Peter quotes Exodus to a church in crisis, saying, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” We are the people of God set apart for the mission of God to display the glory God. This requires the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our churches. We need him more than anything else! Without him with us, there is no distinction between us and the world.
If God’s power isn’t with us, nothing else matters. What would happen if God’s presence became our highest priority? What if we spent more time asking for more of him in our lives and churches? I believe that we would see an outpouring of God’s presence, enabling us to live in our identity and advance the Great Commission in ways we have yet to see!
